“Do you want to tell me why you’re so upset?”
“I’m not.”
Her eyes told a different story along with the firm set of her mouth and raised chin. “I get that you thought I wasn’t coming and why you’d be mad, but an old couple down the hall couldn’t get their door—” He shook his head. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I keep my word, Abby. Always.” He tucked a silky strand behind her ear. Their eyes met, held. So wary and so alone. Would she stay alone? He tried to picture Abby with a man sometime down the road, but he couldn’t, or maybe he didn’t want to.
“Do I really scare you that much?” He cupped the side of her face in his hand. “Because I gotta tell you, you scare the hell out of me.”
Abby’s jaw dropped and she stared at him like he’d grown a second head.
“Mom! Let’s go,” Jack called.
Thank God for Jack, since he was two seconds from kissing that shocked look right off her face.
He opened the back, got out the day’s gear, and together they walked through the giant gate shaped like a wave, looking very much like a family of six.
A group of teens with pierced noses and dripping jean shorts ran by, nearly clipping Abby in the shoulder. When he instinctively moved to protect her with his body, she took his hand and suddenly everything in his world righted. Damn it. She could bunch him up like a ball of paper, then easily smooth him out with a look, a touch. Over and over again. Bunch, smooth. Bunch, smooth.
Matt dropped their gear on an empty chair. “Okay, where to first?”
—
They’d worked through the smaller slides, and Jack was growing impatient.
“Next is the big one. Right, Matt? We get to do Tsunami next.”
They’d started small, Annie and Jack riding in a raft for two while Matt rode with Gracie and Charlie. Abby waited at the bottom, taking pictures, resting her feet, and cheering when they came into view. “Yep. Let’s do it.”
The closer they got to Tsunami—a giant twisting slide with a dark tunnel—the slower Annie moved. Charlie wasn’t big enough to ride it, so he’d stayed behind with Abby and a Popsicle.
“You know, honey, you don’t have to ride this one if you don’t want to.”
“I know,” Annie said, staring at her feet, moving up the stairs one slow step at a time.
The higher they climbed, the louder the echo of terrified screams coming from the winding tunnel. Matt looked over the side where the rafts splashed out at the bottom. “Looks like they had fun,” he said, trying to ease her mind.
They were five steps away from the loading platform at the top, close enough to hear the repetitive beep, beep, beeeeeeeep signaling each raft’s turn to go. A man carried a crying boy past them, going down the stairs.
“Guess he changed his mind.” Matt glanced at Annie. “You sure you want to ride? I can take you down. It’s no problem.”
Annie fingered the ends of her hair as they eased up another step. Poor thing. Like a kid at the end of the high dive, heart racing but wanting so badly to jump.
“Don’t be such a scary cat, Annie,” Jack said.
Matt thumped Jack’s head lightly. “Scaredy-cat. And don’t call people names.”
“I’ll ride with you,” Gracie said cheerfully unafraid, which probably only made Annie feel worse.
He laid a hand on Annie’s head, her brown hair restrained in tight braids, and for the first time all week she moved toward him instead of away. Success. “It’s okay to be afraid.”
Annie looked up at him, hazel eyes blinking under worried brows. She slid her small hand tentatively into his and his heart clenched. He gave her hand a squeeze, imagining Abby at this age, with no hand to hold. He held Annie’s a little tighter.
They all moved up another step. When it was their turn, Jack jumped into the raft the park worker held in the pulsing water. Annie eased closer to Matt’s side.
The college kid working the slide gave them a bored look. “Step in.”
Jack looked back at his sister. “Annie, come on!”
Matt was just about to tell Jack to get out and wait while he walked Annie down. There was no reason for her to do something she obviously didn’t want to do.
“Let’s go,” said an impatient preteen behind them.
“Go already,” his friend added in a snotty voice, then something more under his breath.
Still holding Annie’s hand, Matt rounded on him. “Simmer down, punk. She’ll go when she’s good and ready.”
Annie pulled on his hand, her voice so small he almost didn’t hear her. “Can I ride with you?”
“You bet,” he answered, shocked and proud that she was willing to face her fears, and more that she trusted him.
It took skillful coaxing and convincing to get Gracie to ride with Jack, but off they went. Matt stepped into the next raft and settled Annie between his legs.
When they splashed down at the bottom he lifted Annie over the side. “How was it?”
“Fine.”
“Do you want to go again?”
“No.”
He laughed at her emphatic answer and carried her out of the pool.
—
Abby’s friends arrived in time for lunch, and Angie couldn’t get Abby alone fast enough.
“You picked up a man on the beach?”
“Shh. Keep your voice down. I didn’t pick up a man. He’s a friend.”